


Like Looking In A Mirror

by DeceitfulHonesty



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Body Swap, F/F, High School AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-03 00:16:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6589066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeceitfulHonesty/pseuds/DeceitfulHonesty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma attempts to rewire a machine she and Fitz were building and accidentally activates it, catching Daisy and herself in the crossfire. Now they have to go through a full day of school in the wrong bodies before they can fix the machine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Looking In A Mirror

    “You know, normal people don’t give themselves extra homework.”

  
    Jemma shot Daisy a glare, but didn’t stop tinkering with the device.

  
    “It’s not homework. It’s just a prototype of a device Fitz and I have been working on that could theoretically transfer electrical impulses from an individual’s brain into—”

  
    Daisy’s brain stopped registering the science-y terms, but tried to appear interested from her slouched position on the couch in Jemma’s basement. Jemma hardly seemed to notice as she was elbow deep in the machine, rambling about what it was supposed to do.

  
    Daisy hauled herself off the couch and strolled over to where Jemma was working. She still had no clue what the giant pile of metal on the table was supposed to be, but it was more interesting than algebra homework, so she poked her head over Jemma’s shoulder to get a better look.

  
    “Doesn’t Fitz usually do the technical, engineer-y stuff?” Daisy asked.

  
    Jemma lurched at Daisy’s sudden proximity. “Don’t sneak up on me like that! This is very delicately calibrated at the moment. And yes, but in this case, he’s got the wiring completely backwards. It’ll never generate the necessary—”

  
    Jemma plugged a wire into place and the machine started whirring.

  
    “Oh no. It’s not supposed to do that,” she muttered.

  
    “What...Should we do something?”

  
    “Turn it off!”

  
    “How?!”

  
    Daisy frantically pawed around the machine looking for a switch while Jemma fished around inside the machine, trying to detach wires. The metal box started to glow blue, steadily getting brighter.

  
    “Daisy, get ba—”

  
    A sudden shock wave knocked both of them off their feet and sent them flying backwards. A stack of boxes filled with old clothes and holiday decorations crashed to the ground across the room. After the tumble of boxes settled, Daisy could hear the whirring from the machine becoming lower and quieter until it completely shut off. The blue glow that surrounded it disappeared and it looked completely unassuming.

  
    Daisy surveyed that damage. She wasn’t sure how she was knocked over the couch when she had been standing on the opposite side of the table. She noticed a tangle of limbs sticking out of a toppled pile of boxes that she assumed must be Jemma.

  
    She dragged herself off the floor, rubbing her backside slightly. Nothing seemed broken, but she was going to have a hell of a bruise on her ass tomorrow.

  
    “Hey, Jemma? You okay?” she called out. Then she frowned in confusion. The voice definitely came out of her mouth, but it sounded higher than normal. And she suddenly had an accent?

  
    The tangle of limbs groaned and stirred, knocking aside a few boxes and standing, bringing Daisy face to face with...herself?!?

  
    “What the hell?” Daisy shouted. It came out in Jemma’s voice. She looked down and noticed that she was suddenly wearing the cardigan that Jemma had worn to school that morning.

  
    “Oh my god,” Jemma replied. Jemma’s face—Daisy’s face?— lit up excitedly. “It worked!”

  
    “What worked? Because to me, it seems like something did definitely _not_ work,” Daisy couldn’t stop her voice from sounding frantic.  
    “No, this is exactly what it’s supposed to do,” Jemma insisted in Daisy’s voice.

  
    “Why the hell would you make something that can do...this?” Daisy screeched, gesturing between herself and….herself.

  
    Jemma fidgeted with her hands. It was so weird for Daisy to see Jemma’s mannerisms on her own body. Of course, it was weird to see her body moving around when she was mentally across the room.

  
    “It was designed for catatonic or comatose patients. It could allow a healthy person to temporarily trade their consciousness with another, so they could speak to their families or settle their final wishes or just tell anyone if they still had brain activity,” Jemma explained.

  
    “Oh.” Daisy looked down at her— Jemma’s— hands briefly. “That’s genius.”

  
    Jemma blushed, but smiled.

  
    “So, not that this isn’t really cool, but you did say it was reversible?” Daisy asked.

  
    “Oh, of course. We just need to reverse the polarity on the—”

  
    “English please.”

  
    “I need to move some of the wires,” Jemma replied with a roll of her eyes.

  
    She set to work, plopped down in front of the machine again, but obviously having some difficulty working with Daisy’s hands instead of her own practiced ones.

  
    “Um, we _may_ have a slight problem,” she muttered. She tugged out a small circuit board that Daisy could tell, even with her limited knowledge, should not be black and smoking slightly.

  
    “Shit.”

  
    “My sentiments exactly,” Jemma replied.

  
    “Now what?”

  
    Jemma scrunched up her face in concentration for a moment. She wanted to tell Jemma to stop thinking so hard so she didn’t fry Daisy’s brain, but she figured the comment might get her slapped.

  
    “Fitz should have a replacement, but it’s already past his curfew so we’ll have to get it from him tomorrow,” Jemma said.

  
    “Are you serious? You two built a body swap machine in your basement, but you can’t fix it because of curfew?” Daisy asked exasperatedly.

  
    “His mother is very strict,” Jemma defended.

  
    Daisy groaned. “So, what do we do until tomorrow?”

  
    Jemma shrugged. “I suppose we just go about our night as normal, until we can get back here with Fitz after school.”

  
    “You want to go to school like this?” Daisy gestured between them. “I think this would be a justifiable sick day situation.”

  
    “I have a paper due tomorrow!” Jemma snapped.

  
    Daisy blinked at her. Great, she was serious.

 

* * *

  
    “Heres my— your schedule,” Jemma said, handing Daisy a highlighted and annotated piece of paper. “I have chemistry with Fitz before lunch, so you'll have to ask him for the piece then. I wrote down all the specifications on the back of the schedule so just hand it to him when you get in. Don't tell him that you're not me though. I'll never hear the end of it if he finds out.”

  
    “Did you stay up all night making this?”

  
    “Of course, we have to be prepared.”

  
    Daisy recognized the limpness of her hair when it hadn't been washed. “Did you shower?”

  
    Jemma blushed. “I assumed if we’re only going to be like this for one day, we can manage without having to see each other naked.”

  
    “Oops.”

  
    “Daisy!” Jemma screeched.

  
    Daisy shrugged. “Hey, I'm Jemma today. You're Daisy. But can I just say your pjs are adorable.” She had burst out laughing when she saw the t-shirt with a cartoon test tube set that read ‘stop staring at my rack’ folded up on Jemma’s pillow the night before.

  
    Jemma sputtered and blushed as they walked into the school building. Jemma immediately stiffened and her eyes darted around the hall.

  
    “Jemma, relax. You look like you just killed someone,” Daisy muttered. Jemma reminded completely tense so Daisy tried to distract her.

  
    “So how exactly does this work? Am I suddenly going to be able to understand calculus?”

  
    Jemma shook her head. “The only thing the device should transfer is electrical impulses from the prefrontal cortex. Our personalities and memories have transferred bodies, but muscle memory and basic biological urges should remain with our respective bodies.”

  
    “Gotcha. Then I apologize in advance if I fail you out of your classes,” Daisy replied.

  
    Jemma rolled her eyes. “It's only one day. I doubt you can do that much damage to my grades in that amount of time.”

  
    Daisy shrugged. “You'd be surprised.”

  
    Jemma scoffed, but suddenly looked worried. “Just turn in my chemistry paper and try not to talk to anyone.”

  
    “Okay, _Daisy_. You make sure you don't mess up my reputation as an aloof badass.”

  
    Jemma rolled her eyes and turned to walk down the hall, before she froze.

  
    “I’m locker 212,” Daisy supplied.

  
    “Right. I’m 342.”

  
    Daisy mock-saluted and marched off towards Jemma’s locker. Once she found it, she tugged on the padlock and cursed under her breath when she found that it was actually locked. Of course, Jemma would follow the rules and keep a functional lock on her locker. And of course, she hadn’t told Daisy her combination.

  
    What had she said about muscle memory? Daisy twirled the dial absently a few times before her fingers took over and started to spin the lock into the correct combination until she heard the click.

  
    She fist-pumped the air as she swung the door open. For someone typically so organized, Jemma’s locker was a mess. Her books and binders were stacked neatly enough, but there were scraps of paper tucked between them and taped to the walls, most with chemical formulas scribbled on them. Daisy scanned the schedule in her hands and tugged out the appropriate books  and crammed her backpack into the cramped locker.

  
    As she swung the door shut, Daisy caught sight of herself—well, Jemma— in her locker neighbor’s tiny plastic mirror. Daisy had never realized how pretty Jemma’s eyes were. Granted, she had never been this close to them. She took a few steps back to see more of herself in the tiny mirror.

  
    “Are you checking yourself out?”

  
    “Duh. Have you ever noticed how cute Je—uh, my butt is?” Daisy replied, before turning to see who had spoken.

  
    Crap. It was Fitz.

  
    Fitz scrunched up his eyebrows. “Um. No, definitely not. Never noticed that. Listen, before we get to class I need to talk to you about something.”

  
    Oh no. That sounded like a serious tone. “Fitz, whatever it is, I promise you this is not a good time for it,” Daisy insisted.

  
    “Well, it’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you for awhile—” Fitz muttered.

  
    “I really think it should wait, like, 24 hours. At least.”

  
    “Jemma!” another voice called.

  
    It took Daisy a second to recognize that the voice coming from down the hall was calling her. It took her longer to realize that the voice was her own.

  
    Jemma, in Daisy’s body, half-jogged down the hallway to meet them. Daisy’s heart started to race and she could feel her face heat up. That was weird. What was that thing Jemma said about basic biological functions staying the same?

  
    Jemma’s gait was still stiff as she trotted towards them. “ _Jemma_ , what are you still doing here? Don’t you have class?” she asked pointedly. “Wouldn’t want to be late and ruin my— your perfect attendance record would you?”

  
    Daisy frowned at her. “I was going, but Fitz wanted to talk about something first.”

  
    She tried to give Jemma a look that said, ‘ _help, I think he’s trying to confess something to you and I’m not prepared to deal with it,’_ but if Jemma’s confused expression was any indication, it didn’t come across.

  
    Jemma seemed to be having a difficult time pulling her eyes off Daisy to even notice that Fitz was there. “Oh, hello Fitz. Did you ask him for the thing yet?”

  
    “No! Thanks for reminding me.” Daisy rummaged through her armful of books to tug out the colorful schedule and flipped it over to show the specifications to Fitz. He took it, looking annoyed, but looked over the gibberish scribble of letters and numbers.

  
    “So, you just need a double-layer copper —”

  
    “Double-layer copper PCB with an AIN substrate,” Jemma finished. Both Fitz and Daisy stared at her, Fitz in shock and Daisy mouthed a ‘what the hell?‘

  
    Jemma seemed to realize her mistake and flushed. Daisy jumped in to save her before she started trying to lie.

  
    “I was telling Daisy about the...thingy we’ve been working on the other day,” she said, trying to ignore Jemma’s frustrated glare as she forgot the name of the machine.

  
    Fitz’s face lit up. “Did you try out the device? Did it work?”

  
    “No,” Jemma and Daisy simultaneously blurted.

  
    Fitz looked disappointed and like he wanted to ask more questions when the bell rang. Jemma shoved Daisy towards her classroom, insisting that she needed to get to class _right now or else_ , which Fitz raised an eyebrow at, but Daisy dutifully strolled into the classroom.

* * *

  
    “Ah, Miss Johnson. Nice of you to actually join us on time,” the teacher, Mr. Fury muttered, uncapping a marker. Jemma glared at the back of his head before picking a random empty seat and plopping down in it. She pulled out Daisy’s algebra notebook (which Jemma had to root through her locker to find since Daisy apparently didn’t believe in labels) and flipped it open to start copying the equation.

  
    A bit of irritation at Daisy bubbled up when she realized most of Daisy’s ‘notes’ were doodles in the margins of the pages. She flipped through the notebook, frowning at each doodle (including a very detailed flip-book of a snail climbing a tree) before she found a page with actual equations jotted down. To her surprise, they were all correct, but given the numbers written beside them, Daisy had only bothered to write down every third equation.

  
    Since Daisy was in Algebra 1, Mr. Fury was rambling about stuff Jemma had learned in seventh grade. When he finished jotting down the equation and explaining how to solve it, he turned to the class and asked if anyone had the answer. Everyone immediately fixed their eyes on their desks and pulled a confused look while Jemma muttered the answer under her breath.

  
    “Something to say to the class, Miss Johnson?” Mr. Fury snapped.

  
    It took Jemma a moment to register the comment was directed at her and jolted her attention to the front of the room. “Uh, X equals seven and negative five.”

  
    Mr. Fury blinked in confusion and peered at the equation on the board. “That’s...correct. Good work.”

  
    Jemma allowed herself a smug grin. That’s what you get for insulting her friend’s intelligence. He continued to scrawl various equations across the board, all of which Jemma had solved in less than a minute. She remembered Daisy’s comment about preserving her ‘aloof badass’ persona and kept quiet on most of them, leaving the rest of the class to the mercy of the teacher’s random selection.

  
    The monotony of the class was broken by the door being pushed open hard enough to bang off the wall. Jemma, along with most of the class including Mr. Fury, lurched as Lance Hunter strolled into the room.

  
    “Mr. Hunter. Only 10 minutes late today. I think that’s a new record,” Fury snarked, using the same tone as when Jemma entered.

  
    “Sorry, teach. You would not believe the traffic this morning,” Hunter replied, sarcastically. Before Fury could ask, Hunter slapped a small, pink tardy slip on his desk and sauntered to an empty desk beside Jemma.

  
    “Daisy! I thought we were meeting behind the bleachers to smoke and graffiti the gym,” Hunter muttered.

  
    Jemma gaped. “What?! Dai-- I wouldn’t—”

  
    “Relax. I was kidding, as always. Since when do you take me seriously?” Hunter nudged her lightly in the shoulder. “On a serious note, I hope you remembered it was your week to smuggle in the tacos for lunch.”

  
    “Oh. Um, sorry. I had a busy night, I forgot,” Jemma mumbled.

  
    “Not a problem. I figured you would since you were hanging out with your nerd friend doing ‘science experiments,’” Hunter replied with sarcastic air quotes.

  
    Jemma frowned at both the ‘nerd friend’ nickname and the air quotes. “What do you mean by that? We were working on one of my— Jemma’s new projects.”

  
    Hunter’s eyes widened in amusement. “Oh no. When Simmons says ‘science experiments,’ she _actually_ means science experiments, doesn’t she? That’s—”

  
    “Hunter, I assume you have the answer and that’s why you’re talking so much,” Fury called from the front of the room.

  
    “Pi squared,” Hunter replied confidently.

  
    The response caused Fury to look at the board in confusion, as if double checking what he wrote. “That’s….not even algebra.”  
    Hunter shrugged and turned back to Jemma.

  
    “I’m just saying, if you had balls, they would be as blue as Cookie Monster,” he finished, not even bothering to lower his voice. A few nearby students shot him slightly disgusted looks, while one boy nodded at Jemma in sympathy.

  
    She could feel he face flush and propped her notebook up in front of herself. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  
    Hunter snorted, but let her ignore him to started tonight’s homework. She was sure Daisy wouldn’t mind. Though, now she was thinking about Hunter’s comments and their correlation with the strange palpitations Jemma had been feeling in her (Daisy’s) chest at every mention of herself.

* * *

  
    “Simmons?”

  
    Daisy suddenly thought back to all those online quizzes asking her what superpower she would want and wished she could change her answers; she really wanted the power to melt into the floor right now.

  
    “Um….uh….Calcium?” she tried, blurting out the name of the first element she could remember.

  
    The chemistry professor sighed exasperatedly and called on another one of the overachievers in Jemma’s class. Daisy strategically avoided catching Fitz’s eye, who kept shooting her looks like she had gone crazy. Once they broke into groups to start their experiment, she had no choice but to talk to Fitz.

  
    “What the hell?” he whispered harshly. “You can do these titrations in your sleep.”

  
    “I— Yeah, I know. I just had a...long night,” Daisy muttered.

  
    Fitz rolled his eyes. “Did Daisy try to distract you from studying again?”

  
    Daisy felt her heart speed up at the mention of her name, which she thought was weird. Maybe it was one of those biological things that Jemma had mentioned. “No, I was just up late working on the...thingy.”

  
    “Right. How did you manage to fry the PCB anyway?”

  
    “Uh….I messed up the— the one wire that um…”

  
    Fitz stared at her with a baffled expression. “You really did have a long night. You probably rerouted the—-”

  
    Daisy zoned out as he launched into techno-babble despite trying her hardest to focus. “Yes, that’s exactly what I did,” she replied once he was done.

  
    Fitz nodded. “Should be an easy fix then. I can run home and get the part after school and meet at your house. Is Daisy coming over again?”

  
    There was that damn lurch in her chest again. Did Jemma have a heart condition that Daisy didn’t know about?

  
    “Yeah. Duh, she needs to be there,” Daisy snapped.

  
    Fitz pulled an offended look at Daisy’s tone. “Technically, she doesn’t _need_ to be, but sorry I forgot about your massive crush—”

  
    This time Daisy could figure out why her heart was racing. She could feel her cheeks heating up and wondered if that was one of Jemma’s reactions or her own. “My what now?”

  
    “Come on, we need to set up the experiment.”

  
    “Yeah, whatever. What were you saying about a crush?” Daisy prodded, nudging closer to Fitz.

  
    “Is lack of sleep giving you memory loss now? We talked about this last week,” Fitz grumbled, clearly not enjoying the subject.  
    “Oh, uh. Right. Definitely. I remember that now,” Daisy muttered.

  
    “Good. Then can you make the Hydrochloric Acid solution?”

  
    “No?”

  
    “Come on, Jemma stop messing around. We’re running out of time.”

* * *

  
    One failed experiment and quick shower under the “emergency contamination rinse” and Daisy was trudging to the cafeteria for lunch. Jemma was going to be so mad. Daisy already endured the ‘is everything alright at home?’ discussion from the professor for her, so hopefully Jemma would forgive her. Eventually. How many points were the experiments worth anyway?

  
    At this point, all Daisy could think about was Fitz’s comment about Jemma having a crush on her. That would explain the random reactions Jemma’s body seemed to be having to Daisy’s name.

  
    She trudged to the cafeteria, her shoes, still soaked from the shower, squelching with every step. Bobbi and Hunter were already at their regular table, but Daisy didn’t see, well, herself, anywhere.

  
    Bobbi snorted when she saw Daisy shuffle to the table with her drenched hair and clothes. “What happened to you?”

  
    “Uh, had a bit of a mishap with some Hydrochloric Acid in Chemistry,” Daisy muttered.

  
    Bobbi’s eyebrows shot up. “ _You_ had a mishap in chemistry?”

  
    “Yes, sometimes people make mistakes,” Daisy snapped defensively. That seemed to be a Jemma reaction sneaking in. Daisy wouldn’t have felt so embarrassed at having her mistakes pointed out normally. “Where’s Je— Daisy?”

  
    “Mrs. Hill wanted to talk to her after English Lit,” Hunter replied. “Probably the same thing that Mr. Fury had to say after Algebra. ‘Why don’t you apply yourself in class? You obviously understand the material enough to be pulling A’s!’ You’ve been rubbing off on her, Simmons. Suddenly, she’s Miss Teacher’s Pet.”

  
    Daisy groaned. “Fantastic. Now they have expectations.”

  
    “What on _earth_ happened to you?”

  
    Daisy twisted around in her seat and cam face-to-face with herself, which would never stop being unsettling.

  
    Bobbi jumped in before Daisy could explain herself. “Lab accident, if you can believe it.”

  
    “ _Lab accident?_ ” Jemma screeched, fixing Daisy with a stern glare. Daisy had been on the receiving end of that look from Jemma many times before, but seeing it on her own face was just weird. Daisy gulped before attempting to explain the accident to Jemma.

* * *

  
    “Unbelievable. It was only one day and somehow you’ve managed to make all my teachers question my mental health,” Jemma hissed at Daisy once they were settled in the back of the bus.

  
    “Really? We’re not going to talk about how you suddenly made me look like I should be transferred two classes forward? I can’t keep up with those expectations!” Daisy snapped back.

  
    “Yes you can! I saw your notes. You clearly understand more than you let on and could benefit from the extra challenge,” Jemma replied, her tone softening.

  
    “Come on, you know I hate school. I’m not going to exert anymore effort than I have to,” Daisy grumbled. One of the other kids sitting near the pair was giving them a strange look, probably from hearing Jemma Simmons say she hated school.

  
    Daisy’s attention was pulled to her lap, where Jemma had wrapped her hand around Daisy’s. Jemma looked hesitant and opened her mouth to say something, probably trying to encourage Daisy to ‘apply herself’ or whatever the teachers always said.

  
    “Last stop,” the bus driver called, interrupting whatever Jemma had been about to say. Daisy’s skin felt like it was burning from the contact and her face flushed as she met Jemma’s eyes. Jesus, Jemma. How long had she been dealing with this crush?

  
    “We, uh, should probably go. We’ve got to get that machine thing fixed,” Daisy reminded Jemma. “But, um. After we get switched back, we need to talk.”

  
    Daisy noticed that Jemma’s—well, her own. God this was confusing—cheeks were flushed as well as she nodded and slid out of the bus seat.

  
    They walked to Jemma’s house in silence and found Fitz sitting at Jemma’s kitchen table already waiting for them. The trio headed downstairs after fielding the ‘how was school’ questions from Mrs. Simmons and got to work. Daisy had to physically yank Jemma away from the machine that she instinctively wanted to get her hands on to let Fitz install the part.

  
    “There,” Fitz finally announced, popping the side panel back into place. “Should be good as new. Want to try it out?”

  
    Jemma and Daisy shot each other a look as Fitz’s finger rested over the switch. “Um, maybe let’s take a break first,” Daisy suggested, “I think my mom is about to take some cookies out of the oven.”

  
    Fitz’s eyes lit up and he muttered an agreement before jogging up the stairs. Jemma darted over to the machine as soon as he was out of sight and waved Daisy closer to make sure she was in range.

  
    “Ready?”

  
    “God, yes,” Daisy replied.

  
    Without hesitation, Jemma flipped the switch. The machine lit up blue again and made that irritating whirring sound, before emitting a blinding flash of light.

  
    Luckily, whatever had been messed up last time had been fixed, so the blast didn’t knock either of them off their feet. Daisy cautiously looked down and sighed in relief as she recognized her own clothes and hands. She ran her hands through her short hair like she was saying hello to it. It would be weird to give herself a hug, though, right?

  
    Daisy peered up at Jemma to find her doing a similar inspection of herself with a relieved smile across her lips. Now that she had spent 24 hours outside of herself, Daisy was suddenly acutely aware of the flutter in her chest when she looked at Jemma. She wondered exactly how long she had been suppressing that without realizing it.

  
    Jemma finally seemed satisfied that the machine worked completely and shifted her gaze to Daisy. She suddenly looked nervous and fidgeted with her hands. “So, about that talk—”

  
    Daisy didn’t let her finish before she closed the distance between them and pulled Jemma in for a gentle kiss. Jemma barely hesitated before fisting her hands in Daisy’s shirt to drag her closer.

  
    “No offense, Jemma,” Daisy muttered against her lips, “but I like your body better from this angle.”

  
    Jemma huffed a small laugh and hummed in agreement. “Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt on tumblr. I'm not sure why but this one stumped me for awhile. I was really trying to figure out how to do a body swap AND a high school AU in one and could not figure out where I wanted to go with it. Hope it's enjoyable at least, random anon!


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